My sweet strawberry - forest and garden

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The most vivid childhood memories are the beginning of summer and wild strawberries ... The incomparable aroma of ripe, sun-warmed berries ... In June, we went to the forest and harvested wild strawberries in sunny clearings. The garden - large and sweet - was eaten before mother or grandmother found time to collect it for jam ... Such strawberry happiness should be for everyone - both children and adults. What wild strawberries (forest and garden varieties) are growing in my garden today, I will tell in this article.

Wild strawberries on our site

The plot that we bought in the fall when we moved to the Kuban (foothills) borders on the forest. The equal part goes into the rise - to a low (about 20 meters) hill. A young garden grows on the terraces of the slide.

The whole hill and part of the plot is overgrown with wild, incredibly prickly blackberries - this is a huge fat minus. Since February, they began a consistent struggle with blackberries, cutting, pulling out 3-to 4-meter spiky shoots that covered the ground and rooted in all possible parts.

Having removed the blackberry, in a plot of about 0.5 acres on the slope between the apple trees, strawberries were discovered. Left to see what grows up. With the beginning of the growth of grass, large stems were pulled up, they were cut around - strawberries had already bloomed by this time. And at the end of May she thanked us for caring for a real, incredibly fragrant, sweet forest berry.

As the slope was cleared, several more strawberries were discovered, smaller in size. The berries on different strawberries are different - where they are elongated, where they are round, and on one - pink balls, and the later ones ripen when the main crop is harvested, berries remained in less lighted places closer to the forest.

Those who grow small garden strawberries know that the forest is much more aromatic. Small-fruited garden is sweeter, practically without bitterness, more productive, “more civilized”. But forestry is much more useful.

Now strawberry glades we cherish and cherish. We mow, pull out large weeds, cover with ash in early spring and after fruiting. And then she manages herself.

Planting wild strawberries on the site is not difficult at all: in a forest near several plants, tear off a mustache and plant, for example, bordering a lawn. If you can’t escape into the forest, you can buy a glass of strawberries in the market, not eat a few berries, but knead the pulp and sow. Better, of course, in peat tablets - very tiny in her sprouts. And water from the pan, saturating peat. Plant when the seedlings acquire sizes at which they will no longer be lost.

Varieties of large-fruited garden strawberries in my beds

We started planting large-fruited garden strawberries in the very first spring of our stay in the Kuban. Today we have all summer - very strawberry. We grow both maintenance and ordinary varieties of garden strawberries of different ripening dates - early, middle and late.

Repairing varieties of strawberries garden or NSD

Remontant strawberries, otherwise denoted by the abbreviation NSD (neutral daylight hours), are good for long, sometimes continuous throughout the growing season, fruiting. Eating strawberries out of season is very nice! Varieties of NSD successfully bear fruit both in indoor and in greenhouse conditions. Of course, there will be no summer taste and aroma, but still - berries.

Of the planted repairmen, the variety became the favorite strawberry garden "Evi-2" (Evie 2): begins to bear fruit first and ends last. In our case, in the Kuban, in the open ground, this is from May 15-17 to November.

In the characteristics of the variety it is indicated that he does not like heat, therefore in July-August it bears fruit poorly, produces 1-2 berries. With plenty of heat and sun, the berries are very sweet! Autumn, of course, sour.

The bushes are compact, you can plant them tightly. Mustache is very small, it is not possible to propagate quickly. I don’t want to divide the bush during the season - either it bears fruit or the heat. It turns out an increase in a bush a year ...

We also planted such varieties of strawberries garden NSD:

Aromas (Aromas) - good in September, berries are beautiful, tasty (for September), there are more berries than in early summer.
Capri (Kapri) - a short bush, few mustaches, lots of berries, beautiful, dense, tasty.
"Caramel" - grown from seeds, fruiting from June to October, evenly. Berries are one-dimensional, tasty. Although she "sits" in a shaded place than the rest.
"Queen Elizabeth" (Queen Elizabeth) - large berries, fruiting in waves, the most abundant fruiting - in late May.
Monterey (Monterey) - powerful bushes, sweet, large berries, abundant fruiting in early June, then weaker.
"Florina" (Florina) - medium, brilliant berries, fruiting from mid-June to frost, flower stalk after flower stalk.

All varieties of strawberry garden NSD give little mustache, all the strength goes into berries. Moreover, every year there is less and less strength. Therefore, it is advisable to take care of reproduction in the first year of cultivation. All the bushes work well "year 2, then the plantation has to be updated.

Early varieties of wild strawberries

Among the undisputed leaders among the early varieties - strawberry garden Gariguetta (Gariguette). Elongated, conical berries of amazing taste! Fruits in the 2nd half of May, plentifully, eaten almost completely fresh. Pets and guests primarily go to the beds with this variety. Bushes are powerful, flower stalks are long, there are a lot of berries. There are also a lot of mustaches, so it’s easy to breed.

In addition to "Gariguetta", I really like "Wima Zant" (Vima Zanta). This variety was grown in the Khabarovsk Territory, and he was there on top. Its berries are relatively light in color, but sweet even when grown in partial shade. And the berries have a rather delicate structure: eating from the bush is the very thing, but they probably will not be suitable for transportation and storage. We eat fresh that we have not finished - for jam.

Very good strawberry garden "Czech Beauty" - large, dense, sweet, aromatic. Powerful bushes, thick peduncles. It tolerates drought well, which is important for us. This can be transported and stored. It can be frozen - when defrosting, the berries do not lose their shape. Only here is a lot of places in the freezer due to large-fruited.

"Masha" (Moscow Jubilee) in our conditions is very sweet and fragrant. Like Vima Zant, it is not suitable for transportation and storage - the pulp is very tender. And the shape of the berry is either a scallop or an uneven cone. She is also better to eat from the bush.

Still planted early varieties of strawberries:

Darselect (Darselect) - a delicious large berry, but requires regular watering and is greatly affected by a tick. I had to move her away from the rest.

"Ducat early" - sweet and beautiful berry, but also does not tolerate drought. And very "mustachioed".

Kimberly (Vima kimberly) Is a good, reliable variety with sweet and fragrant berries, tolerant of drought and heat. Feature - berries ripen for a relatively long time. The very taste is when the berries are fully colored, you have to go around and check them regularly.

Olbia - Apparently, sitting in my wrong place - in partial shade. Large bushes, large berries, but the taste has not yet impressed, goes to jam. I'll try to transplant.

Mid-season varieties of strawberry garden

Mid-season I have two varieties - Marshal (Marshal) and «Roxanne (Roxana), very different "mustache": "Marshal" dense, "Roxanne" is almost barely. The berries in both varieties are large, beautiful, sweet, but not prominent. In Roksana, in the wet winter, two bushes fell out, despite the raised beds.

Late varieties of strawberry garden

It is difficult to objectively evaluate late varieties, having eaten sweet early, medium and remontant garden strawberries. And still grade "Great Britain" stands out - powerful bushes with large sweet berries.

A very good conclusion to the main strawberry season, when, having eaten garden strawberries in all forms, you find that not all the tastiest is still eaten! The flesh of the berry is rather dense, the berries themselves are glossy, beautiful, even. And it’s nice to see and eat.

"Polka" I liked it - sweet smooth berries, healthy bushes, drought-resistant and heat-resistant, fruitful and beautiful. In the sunshine in the July heat produces flower stalks one after another - a sight for sore eyes! And a merger.

We also have such varieties of late strawberries:

"Zenga Zengana" (Senga sengana) - This is from the field of nostalgia, compared to other varieties it is not impressive.

Mice Schindler (Frau mieze schindller) - I felt the peculiarity of this berry only last year. The berries have a unique aroma and taste, from my point of view, already re-ripening. Refined taste. The rest loses in all respects - productivity, berry size, appearance and resistance to drought. In dry summers, even when watering the berries, approximately, like our wild strawberries.

Zemklunika

Well, here I have a traditional "Merchant", which is better to eat without particularly looking - there is no particular beauty in it. I would even say an unpresentable appearance. The conflict of form and content, because she has a wonderful taste.

It is really a sweet berry, without a hint of acid and with a pleasant aroma. Zemklunika mustachioed, grows well. The bushes are tall, healthy, there are a lot of berries.

My tricks of growing strawberries

In the Kuban, there is no particular problem in growing garden strawberries - with plenty of sun and warmth, it grows sweet without any tricks. May and June are rarely arid, our soil is clayey, so there is enough moisture to fill the berries. True, the repairing one has to be regularly watered in the hot and dry months.

I feed with ash, which is a lot and which all types of strawberries are very fond of. Freshly cut grass is used as mulch. Black non-woven material did not take root - my strawberries grew very poorly on it. The topsoil may be too hot.

The problems encountered are birds, slugs and grape snails. Stacking peduncles on plastic forks or sticks stuck in the ground helps from slugs, and shelter with a construction net from birds and snails.

In the Khabarovsk Territory, where we lived before, there were slightly different problems, the main one being wintering. A successful variant of sheltering the berry for the winter happened by chance: low arcs were established and a young strawberry was covered with a double layer of covering material.

Suddenly, it began to rain in early November, and the next day everything was icy. The strawberries turned out to be a warm house, which saved it both during snowless frosts and then when the snow fell.

Garden strawberries (by the way, “Vima Zanta”, “Mashenka” and the repairing “Moscow Delicacy”) in the spring quickly set off and abundantly bore fruit. Then we repeated this option - we covered and watered from a watering can in the cold. Roses, by the way, also have better wintering with such shelter.

P.S. A good strawberry is grateful. And gives us a piece of childhood at any age ...